Ron Pequegnat is the end of an era
The clockmaker’s last living shopkeeper shares his bittersweet memoirs
Ron Pequegnat, 91, holds a Pequegnat “Preston” wall clock. He the last living storekeeper from the clock company his great uncle started over a century ago.
Hard core collectors and vintage fans have come to expect big things from Miller & Miller Auctions of New Hamburg, Ontario. Ethan and Justin Miller’s aim—to bring the very best of Canadian collections to the public -- will be exemplified on Saturday, March 20th during their Music Machines, Clocks and Canadiana auction.
Featuring over 120 Pequegnat clocks, watches and ephemera from the fabled Robert Russell Collection of Chatham, the sale promises to attract collectors from across North America.
And while the Miller brothers are delighted to be able to bring Russell’s treasures to a wide audience, these heritage lovers also view it as an opportunity to share the famous story of the Pequegnat family and its present scion Ron, now in his 92nd year.
This is Canadian manufacturing history at its most compelling.
In 1867, Canadian Confederation, the French-speaking Swiss Pequegnat family of 17 arrived in Berlin, Ontario. With a well-respected watch and clock-making heritage, within seven years of Ontario residency the savvy Pequegnats opened up 10 jewellery stores, from London to west of Toronto.
J. Pequegnat & Son store facade in the 1920s.
J. Pequegnat & Son store interior in the 1920s. Ron’s parents Harold and Marguerite stand behind the counter.
Aware of the failed history of Canadian clockmakers prior to their arrival, by the turn of the century the Pequegnats had decided to bring Swiss know-how to the keeping-time industry in their adopted country.
In their Frederick Street, Berlin factory Arthur Pequegnat, the family’s ambitious eldest son, began to design and manufacture clocks. Over 100 models eventually made their appearance.
By 1904, Pequegnat-made clocks were being advertised to jewellery stores across the country. The motto “Buy Canadian—Pequegnat clocks are better than foreign made ones” struck a chord with Canadians and clocks were flying off store shelves by the hundreds.
Crowds gathered for the J. Pequegnat & Son 35th Anniversary Sale in 1927.
Then as now, in business quality is only half the battle won. The savvy Arthur saw the wisdom in naming clock models after Canadian cities. And before long, the Pequegnat ‘Montreal,’ the ‘London,’ the ‘Stratford,’ and the ‘Toronto’ were collector’s pieces in those communities and beyond.
The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 and anti-German sentiment in Waterloo County forestalled plans for a Pequegnat ‘Berlin’ to join the family. The clock was rechristened the ‘Berlyn’.
The death of Arthur Pequegnat in 1927 and the growing popularity of the winding wristwatch spelled the demise of the family’s clock-making business. The last Pequegnat clock left the factory in 1943.
But winding down the clock-making arm of the family business wouldn’t see the Pequegnat family looking for new employment opportunities. Many of the original 10 Pequegnat jewellery stores in Stratford, Kitchener, Simcoe and other communities across southern Ontario remained open, managed by the business-minded brothers.
The Pequegnat name, which melded quality and professional service, would remain embedded in the retail fabric of the province for another half-century.
J. Pequegnat & Son Jewellers, circa 1995.
Third-generation Ron Pequegnat, 91 of Guelph has mixed memories of his 50 years behind the counter at the Pequegnat family store on Wyndham Street.
“It was an expectation that after my grandfather Joseph (one of the original Pequegnat brothers) passed on, my father Harold would take over. Then, I’d follow.”
Ron had started in the store as a teenager, sweeping behind the counter and delivering messages, before eventually slipping into his “pre-ordained” role as management.
Not that he was in love with the job. “I felt that I hadn’t the head for business,” he admits.
Ron remembers his grandfather Joseph and recalls his generosity during the Great Depression.
“Although his tenant F.W. Woolworth could pay the rent, his less stable tenants above, including a dentist, a photographer, and the IOF (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) could not afford it. During that difficult time he never collected a dime from them”.
The Pequegnat family, circa 1900. Arthur Pequegnat (back row, third from right) and Ron's grandfather Joseph (middle row, far left).
Curiously, while Ron greatly admired his family’s clock-making expertise, he was never a Pequegnat clock collector himself. Instead, other treasures and curiosities took his eye. Time away from the store saw Ron and his wife Betty travelling, often to England, looking for treasures.
Ron and his beloved late wife Betty, circa 1995.
He developed a passion for collecting porcelain figurines, illuminated art and Windsor chairs.
There is, however, a Pequegnat heirloom that Ron would give anything to have back. When he was a boy the ‘Joseph Pequegnat & Son’ pocket watch trade sign that originally hung from his grandfather’s storefront disappeared.
“My father would order china and dinnerware from England and sell it in the store. It came straw-packed in wooden barrels and my job was to carefully unpack it and bring the straw to a storage room in the back of the shop. A crew of cleaners would come regularly to pick up the straw and other debris to burn it somewhere”.
Unfortunately the trade sign found its way to the room with the straw and went missing after a cleaning. When Ron noticed it was gone, he was too young to do anything about it. He suspects it was either burned with the straw or sold.
“I’d pay $10,000 to get it back”, he says.
The ‘Joseph Pequegnat & Son’ pocket watch trade sign is pictured hanging above the J. Pequegnat storefront before its disappearance.
He discouraged his own sons from entering the business, feeling they were destined for other careers. “I had been pressured by my family to carry on the Pequegnat name and I had never felt comfortable with it,” he admits.
Changes were also occurring in the jewellery business. The computer and on-line buying nudged many ‘Mom and Pop’ retail stores, Pequegnat included, into ‘going out of business’ sales.
In 1997 Ron Pequegnat retired. He sold the original Wyndham Street building and it was renamed Guelph Jewellers. That was the end of an era. The city’s last link to the Pequegnat family passed into history.
With Robert Russell’s Pequegnat Collection on the block, Miller & Miller Auctions is proud to offer discriminating timepiece collectors a second opportunity to buy a piece of Canadian history. In May 2019, they offered Curt Davidson’s Pequegnat collection to a standing-room-only crowd clamouring to capture an example of time-piece ‘royalty’.
In preparation for that extravaganza, Miller & Miller replicated The Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company’s display at the Canadian National Exhibition in 1911. “There’s never before been such a collection,” recalled Ethan Miller.
In preparation for their May 2019 sale, Miller & Miller replicated The Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company’s display from the Canadian National Exhibition in 1911.
Justin Miller points to several other curiosities in the upcoming Robert Russell sale. “One is an early tool marked Pequegnat Clock Co that simulates a Robertson screwdriver.” Another is what Justin calls a “mystery” movement made by Pequegnat. “No collectors can agree on the original purpose of either of these items,” he adds.
In addition to the Russell Collection of 121 Pequegnat clocks, wrist watches and other fine time-keeping ephemera, the lovingly-curated Gerry and Cathy Koolen collection of fine Dutch clocks will also be on the auction block.
By Nancy Silcox
Nancy Silcox, of New Hamburg, is a former teacher and university counsellor. Her journalistic favourites include history, biography and Canadian art.
Auction Title: Music Machines, Clocks & Canadiana
Auction Date: March 20, 2021
Online Bidding: March 1 - March 20, 2021.
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